Todays Fifteen

Todays post is based on an encouonter I had earleir this afternoon. It did not take 15 minutes to write. However, adding in this part and then getting it posted took at least that long. I am hopeful that since the idea is to write everyday I will not lose the challenge based on a few minutes here and there. In actual overall time today, I have spent more than 15 minutes writing. I wrote in my new journal and I wrote this piece. I think it all adds up and counts!

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The Super Hero Beagle

I was walking the dog today. From time to time people comment on my dog and I usually just say thank you and keep on moving. However, every now and again more of my attention is required, unless I want to be an ass and ignore the other person. Example, this afternoon a woman stopped and began talking to me about her dog. She had a beagle and according to the story she told this Beagle was a super hero. Her dog’s super power was smelling!

The woman related a story that went something like this. While living in Ingersoll she took her Beagle to the park. The Beagle was able to smell bones that were buried 10 to 12 feet under ground. This, of course, is remarkable enough but the story gets even better. One day, when she was not looking, her Beagle began to dig. Much to her surprise the dog showed up with bones! I have no idea how she knew the bones were 12 feet deep, I imagine she went over and checked out the hole her dog had dug.

Having discovered the deep pit of bones she did what any good dog owner does. She called the police. I did not find out what the bones were or what the police did about that, it seemed secondary to the rest of the tale. Based on the super smelling senses her dog had the police took the dog in for “smell testing”. Of course, the Beagle passed with flying colours. Which is no surprise after finding bones buried 12 feet deep.

After evaluating the dog’s sense of smell the dog was offered a job as a drug “sniffer”. The woman, however, did not want her dog to be working every day so she turned down the job on the dog’s behalf. In the cold light of hindsight this poor woman told me she regretted her decision. "All dogs should have a job", she said "they like to work". We ruminated on that for a moment and then I said, “well, you loved your dog and that’s really what mattered”. She agreed. We smiled and bid each other a farewell and we went on about our days.

What a great moment in downtown dog walking. Had I not been in a hurry to get to work, I may have asked her what the bones were, animal or human. I would also certainly of asked her how long it took to fill the hole in!